Lav's Music Corner

Contemporary hip hop is having the down year of all down years. Until Lil Uzi dropped Pink Tape  it hadn't even had a number-one album at any point in 2023. That's why I largely felt okay putting it on the back burner as none of the records were exactly critical darlings either. Now, before Travis Scott comes along and resets the game later this month I'm taking a look at some of the biggest release of the year so far. Business Is Business  - Young Thug I assumed that this would be like many releases made when an artists is unable to be directly involved in the artistic process for one reason or another. But I've also been a big fan of Thugger in the past and I thought his deep cuts might be at least on par with some of his contemporaries studio material, I was right. This album isn't amazing or anything and it's far from his best but it also still manages to stand above many of his contemporaries despite his incarceration. Firstly, the album's 46-minute run...

Cordae is one of the most notable young voices in hip hop who became popular as a result of his critically acclaimed sound that blends together contemporary rap trends with classic hip hop lyricism and storytelling. He proved that he has an impressive amount of industry support backing him on his debut album in 2019 and since then had scored a number of high profile features while building up hype for this sophomore project.  Review By Lav: I really enjoyed Cordae's debut album. Not only did it show off the specific strengths we already knew about him as an artist, compelling narrative lyricism and command of flow, but it also introduced us to just how impressively versatile he is as an artist. He built even further on this with an impressive EP last year that saw him dabbling in hip hop sounds of both knew and old while also flexing some incredible singing vocals that I didn't even know he had in him. Even though I wasn't crazy about either of the albums singles, I was sti...

Gunna is an Atlanta rapper signed to Young Thug's YSL Records label. He broke out a few years ago on a string of features alongside Young Thug and a successful collaborative album between himself and fellow 2018 up and comer Lil Baby. DS4EVER  is his 3rd proper studio album and comes two years after his first #1 album Wunna  in 2020. Review By Lav: I was late to Gunna. When I first heard him on the back of his affiliation with Young Thug I was so sure that his prescence would be a passing fad that I passed on reviewing some of his early mixtapes. It wasn't until his Lil Baby collab Drip Harder  which spawned the first big hit of his career that I realized I couldn't ignore him forever. The first highlight of my interaction with Gunna's music and his fans was when an intern from his record label called me "an LGBT" on Twitter and used that as an explanation for why I didn't enjoy Drip or Drown 2  which honestly still makes me laugh to this day. Believe it o...

Young Thug has been one of trap music's biggest stars for the past few years. Hailing from the genre's inception city of Atlanta and participating in collaborations with all of it's biggest stars as well as high profile crossovers with more pop oriented acts like Drake and Camila Cabello have all risen Thugger's profile dramatically. Now after releasing the most commercial album of his career back in 2019 he's following it up with a lightly indulgent venture into acoustic and singer-songwriting music, though it's all still heavily steeped in trap influence.  Review By Lav: *sigh*, I really like Young Thug. While his occasionally transphobia is, lets call it alarming, he's hip hop's ultimate charmer. His brash willingness to experiment with his personal and musical style compared with his capacity to write charming and silly lyrics that go over perfectly on song after song has made him one of contemporary rap's most protected voices. After a high prof...

Slime Language 2 is the second compilation album from Young Thug's Young Stoner Life Records. It features contributions from many artists on the label, most notably Thug himself and Gunna, while spotlighting a number of young talents and bringing on many high profile guests. The 23 track 75 minute record is an extension well beyond the first Slime Language  and has been one of the most talked about moments in popular rap music this year.  Review By Lav: I've always been known to dish out praise in Young Thug's direction as one of the more unique MC's in the world of trap music. Despite that he isn't without his misses and he tends to release a lot of material, not all of which is great. Slime Language 2  takes that element of Thugger's output as a mission statement rather than a word of warning. This thing is incredibly bloated and even more inconsistent with the quality of songs varying drastically depending on the talent level of the artists involved. One thin...

YG   is a Compton based rapper who first emerged in 2013 with a contemporary hip hop sound and a few mainstream hits. He changed course with his sophomore record 2016's critically acclaimed Still Brazy  which adopted a 90's g-funk hip hop approach. Since then he has released two more records, each of which took a much more contemporary trap flavored approach. With a few singles leading up to My Life 4Hunnid  he forecasted a transition back to his g-funk sound and generated significant hype in doing so.  Review By Lavender: This is the most excited I've been for a YG album, well ever really. Still Brazy  blindsided me and emerged as one of my favorite rap records of the 2nd half of the 2010's. Since then YG hasn't blown me away with another record even though his most recent release was an improvement over its predecessor. The singles were primarily what made me so excited for this record, not only because they were so good but also because they called back to th...

 

Gunna is an Atlanta trap artist who has emerged as a Young Thug protege and is signed to his YSL label. This is Gunna's 2nd official album but he is much more known for his collaborative project with Lil Baby Drip Harder  back in 2018. Lil Baby released his big sophomore record earlier this year to commercial success and Wunna  sees Gunna attempting to do the same.  Review By Lavender: I skipped out on reviewing Gunna up to this point for one key reason, I had nothing to say. You could describe his solo debut Drip Or Drown 2  as well as his slightly better collaborative project with Lil Baby Drip Harder  as nearly comatose generic trap records with inconsistent vibes and underwritten songs. It was clear that nobody in the process was really trying as they made music so I didn't try when it came to reviewing it. But Wunna  felt like a more significant statement from an artist who has proven to have some more commercial staying power than I anticipated given ...

Chris Brown & Young Thug are a pair of veteran music industry players who have come together for a surprise collaborative mixtape. Chris Brown is a controversial but successful R&B singer who has been around for nearly 20 years now and Young Thug is one of the more unique and critically acclaimed voices in modern trap music, so it is safe to say the pairing is a slight surprise. Review By Lavender: I didn't really have any time to prepare my expectations for this mixtape give that there were no real singles for the project and it was basically surprised dropped in the middle of the week. But had I had the time to develop expectations for the record I think I would have ended up anticipating this thing to be exactly what it is. The beats here are simple and the songs are inconsistent but when Thugger and Chris Brown bring their strongest personality to the fold they can make some great tracks.  The opening track is an example of the pairing going right. The song Say You Love...

Megan Thee Stallion is a Texas based rapper who blew up last summer with her "Hot Girl Summer" catchphrase and a series of viral hit singles, all coming from her debut mixtape Fever . After popping up for a number of features and contributing to some movie soundtracks over the last few months she surprised announced a new 9 track 24 EP that followed in line with her first two official releases. Review By Lavender: Megan Thee Stallion mostly won me over last year, while I thought her debut mixtape was solid and nothing to incredible she proved to be fantastically consistent. When she finally teamed up with Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign to turn her marquee phrase into a song it was one of my favorite singles of the year and went even further to establish herself as one of rap music premiere bad bitches. On Suga  she goes even further to prove that she may be unmatched when it comes to crafting sexually charged bangers, but she also shows some lack of versatility on numer...

Lil Uzi Vert is a Philly born trap rapper who developed a cult like following off the back of his come-up, culminating in his 2017 debut studio record Luv Is Rage 2 . Since then he has been on numerous features and continually delayed the release of his previously announced follow-up. But now Eternal Atake  has arrived a week ahead of schedule, and just as fans were beginning to digest the record Uzi surprised dropped the sequel to one of his most loved mixtapes LUV Vs. The World 2  on the original announced release date for Atake . Review By Lavender: Lil Uzi is one of the artists I have always received a ton of hate for not blindly following. I gave an admittedly tough review to his debut studio record that I still can't really stand to this day. And I've always liked his big singles and marquee features much less than his fans do, with the exception of Shoota  with Playboi Carti. I was always interested in what Uzi would do next and how he would push his sound a...

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a New York MC who has had a meteoric rise to success starting with a prominent spot on XXL 2017 freshman list. He released his debut record to moderate critical acclaim and commercial success later that year, and followed it up with his sophomore record Hoodie SZN  which spent multiple weeks at #1 in the beginning of last year. Now after a run of singles and feature Boogie is gearing up to release his third album Artist 2.0  a sequel to his debut record. Review By Lavender: I enjoyed Boogie's debut album The Bigger Artist , it didn't blow me away but as far as trap records go I found much more of it interesting than mundane. Unfortunately I could say the exact opposite for the follow-up Hoodie SZN  which came out late in 2018 and underwhelmed me to the point of where I didn't even give it a formal review before my list week. What had me worried coming into the album was the success Boogie found with Hoodie SZA  commercially, and wonde...

Young Thug is an Atlanta hip hop artist who arrived in a wave of trap music in the mid 2000's coming with connections to artists like Gucci Mane, Migos and Travis Scott, eventually dropping a critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut Barter 6 . In 2016 Thugger released what many believe to be his magnum opus record with Jeffery  which was cited by numerous publications as one of the best albums of the year and spawned many fan favorite and cult-classic tunes. Since then he has released one studio album focused on a specific experiment, as well as a number of collaborative albums and EPs with various artists, but So Much Fun  seems to be a more focused and important entry into his ever growing discography. Review by Lavender: Young Thug has long been one of the best personalities in hip hop, both with hilarious and zany lyrics and performances, as well as a killer personality and thirst for experimentation in the genre. He got off to a fantastic start to his...